Summer Project - Yard Stuff

Last Spring found us working in our yard. We were attempting to actually make a yard. Our original plan was to build a shed on a concrete foundation. Then one day, I was looking at the spot we picked out, and casually asked Randy why we couldn't extend the concrete clear up the side of the house.

So Zac, Randy's home teaching companion, a certified concrete contractor, and a brilliant nuclear engineering student, came over and got right to work.

After a few days, the concrete truck showed up and blocked the road for 30 minutes.

But Look! Isn't it pretty? One of our neighbors joked about the wheel-chair ramp. It looks funny here, but that little ramp sure is handy when we drive the riding mower into the shed. After this concrete pad dried, this became McKay's favorite place to ride his bike.

Then, Randy, Dan (a friend of ours), and Braxton spent multiple Saturdays getting the shed built. I love it because the lawn mowers, rototiller, rakes, shovels, gas cans, etc., are now in the shed and not the garage.

This is the finished product.

After the shed was finished, the two older boys got to spend most of their summer days spraying the weeds in the back of the house. We'd spray, wait for the weeds to die, water, and kill everything green that came up. We did this three or four times. Then at the end of August, Randy got to spend the better part of a day on a tractor tilling up most of our acre.

It really is a lot of yard. This picture only shows about a third of what we tilled up. We decided that when we do plant grass, we want real grass that isn't full of weeds, and that's why it was all killed off. After tilling, we hired a guy to come put in our sprinkler system. I realize there are those of you who say, "Do it yourself. It's not that hard." But after watching these people put in our system and getting it done in two days, I'm so glad we didn't try to do it ourselves. We'd still be out there trying to put in lines.

Part of our landscape budget included the curbing. I love it and it will look even better in the spring when I can tackle these flower beds.

The last thing we did was buy four big trees. You'll notice that there is some green starting to come back up. That pasture grass is hard to kill. In the spring, we'll kill everything again and then we'll plant grass seed. Hopefully a year from now we'll have a lawn.

A lawn would be nice. It might mean less mud in my house.